1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic-watermark control apparatus and method for controlling electronic-watermark information used in image data, an information control apparatus and method, and a storage medium, capable of being read by a computer, used for these apparatuses and methods.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been approaches for protecting the copyright of an image or guaranteeing authenticity of the image by embedding electronic-watermark information in the image as information which is difficult to been seen.
The state of electronic watermarks after being superposed, when a plurality of elements include respective electronic watermarks and a set of data is obtained by superposing these elements, for example, when superposing a plurality of files having respective electronic watermarks has not been clearly studied. Accordingly, when a plurality of electronic watermarks are present in the same region within data after being superposed, an overlapped state between the electronic watermarks is provided, thereby causing problems such that, for example, a state of an electronic watermark after superposition which is different from the state intended by the user is provided, the effectiveness of the electronic watermark is impaired, and electronic-watermark information is destructed.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described problems.
According to one aspect of the present invention, an information control apparatus includes superposition means for superposing a plurality of elements, each having a set of electronic-watermark information, to provide a set of data, determination means for determining a state of respective sets of electronic-watermark information after the superposition, and notification means for notifying of the determined states.
According to another aspect of the present invention, an information control method includes the steps of super-posing a plurality of elements, each having a set of electronic-watermark information, to provide a set of data, determining a state of respective sets of electronic-watermark information after the superposition, and notifying the determined states.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, in a computer readable memory storing a program, the program includes the steps of superposing a plurality of elements, each having a set of electronic-watermark information, to provide a set of data, determining a state of respective sets of electronic-watermark information after the superposition, and notifying of the determined states.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, an information control apparatus includes synthesis means for synthesizing a plurality of sets of electronic-watermark information, determination means for determining a position of each of the plurality of sets of electronic-watermark information, and control means for controlling the synthesis means so that positions of synthesis of the respective sets of electronic-watermark information do not overlap, based on a result of the determination of the determination means.
According to yet a further aspect of the present invention, an information control apparatus includes synthesis means for synthesizing a plurality of sets of information to provide a single set of information, determination means for determining a position of specific information in each of the plurality of sets of information, and control means for controlling the synthesis means so that positions of synthesis of respective sets of specific information do not overlap, based on a result of the determination of the determination means.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, an information control method includes the steps of determining respective positions of a plurality of sets of electronic-watermark information, and synthesizing the plurality of sets of electronic-watermark information so that they do not overlap with one another based on a result of the determination.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, an information control method includes the steps of determining a position of specific information in each of a plurality of sets of information, and synthesizing the plurality of sets of information so that positions of synthesis of respective sets of specific information do not overlap, based on a result of the determination, to provide a single set of information.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, in a computer readable memory storing a program, the program includes the steps of determining respective positions of a plurality of sets of electronic-watermark information, and synthesizing the plurality of sets of electronic-watermark information so that they do not overlap with one another, based on a result of the determination.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, in a computer readable memory storing a program, the program includes the steps of determining a position of specific sets of information in each of a plurality of sets of information, and synthesizing the plurality of sets of information so that positions of synthesis of respective sets of specific information do not overlap, based on a result of the determination, to provide a single set of information.